


Wolf Child

by The_Walking_Pies



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Series, nothlit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 22:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1704587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Walking_Pies/pseuds/The_Walking_Pies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's not sure how she can fit into her child's life like this. But she was an animorph, she knows how to adapt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wolf Child

Cassie paws at the door and calls out with her mind, hoping Luke is near enough to hear. She hears footsteps and the lock click.

<Hey honey, I'm home.>

"I can see that." Luke smiles down at her and she can't help but wag her tail. She can smell his confusion, she never goes in the door like this. "Rachel was just asking for a dog, I guess a wolf will have to do." He teases lightly.

<Ha ha ha> She laughs sarcastically in her mind and brushes past his legs. Anxiety clouds her mind but she doesn't let him feel it. They've always tried to keep it light between them. It works better than dwelling on her past.

"Is mommy home?" Rachel comes running from the living room. She stops when she sees Cassie.

_"Shit. This is why I don't come home like this."_ Cassie thinks to herself.

"Mommy?"

<Yeah baby. It's me.> She slowly pads over and sits a foot away from her daughter, allowing the little girl to take her in.

Rachel stares at her for a couple sends and then throws her arms around Cassie's neck. The wolf part of her wants to growl and get away, but the maternal part of both the wolf and the human override the wolf's anxiety. 

"Why are you a wolfie?"

<Remember how daddy told you mommy is a superhero?>

"Yeah, and that's why mommy goes away sometimes."

<Well this is mommy's superpower.>

"Oh. Are you going to leave again soon?"

<No, Rachel. I'm retiring. Why don't you show me what you were playing?>

"Okay! I was coloring."

<I'd love to see it.>

She follows Rachel back into the living room and glances back at Lucas. He looks surprised. Of course he is, she hadn't known she was retiring from her animorph duties. Cassie curls up and watches as Rachel shows her the drawings she made.

"Hey kiddo, I need to borrow your mom for a second." Lucas says.

Dread knots in Cassie's stomach, she knows what this is about. She wanted to put it off as long as possible.

They go over to the corner where he can whisper without Rachel overhearing.

"Do you need to go to our room to morph? I know you don't want her seeing the process."

<No, it's fine.> She turns to go back to Rachel.

"Wait. Why didn't you tell me you were retiring?"

<I just decided today.>

He sighs an she feels guilty. "What aren't you telling me, Cassie?"

<Look, can we talk about this later?> She walks back over to their daughter.

He waits half an hour before he brings it up again.

"Cassie, why don't you go change?"

She doesn't look at him.

"Cassie?"

<I'm sorry> She tells him privately. 

"Cassie, please. You're going to run out of time."

Rachel senses the tension and stares at her parents, alert.

<Oh sweetheart, it was already too late.> Her thoughts sound melancholy but her amber eyes show nothing.

They yell and scream, but he has trouble yelling at a wolf. She sleeps at the foot of Rachel's bed that night. She wakes up early and goes to the kitchen before realizing she can't make herself breakfast. It's such a small detail, but that's what breaks her. She screams and cries in her mind, but outwardly makes no sound. She's trapped, helpless, _useless._

Lucas walks into the kitchen rubbing his eyes and yawning. He stops when he sees her. "Couldn't sleep either?" Is all he says.

<No>

"How long do you have?" He asks her in a small voice.

She knows what he's asking. <This body is three years old. So probably more than ten but less than fifteen.>

His eyes are red and she wonders if he's been crying. 

"Alright."

She cocks her head questioningly.

"Let's make it count."

___________

 Cassie knows at least Jake's heard by now from the official report. She doesn't hear from him, maybe it's better that way. Marco some over once and she learns how Tobias must have felt. Marco can't hide the terror on his face. Everything he's done afterwards has been to escape memories of the war. Now Cassie's just another reminder of what's been done to them.  

Tobias is second to find out. She can't read his hawk's face, but then again he can't read hers either. Maybe she expected to feel some sort of comradeship with him now, but she thinks it just brings them both pain. Then she's angry. 

<You didn't have to isolate yourself after the war. You don't have to live in this meadow by yourself. You have a choice, you could be human again.>

<Why? There's nothing left.> He asks.

<Rachel and Ax are gone Tobias, but we're still here.>

<It's better like this. The hawk knows how to survive. I don't.>

She doesn't know what to say to that, so she leaves. _It's better that the team split up, we're all toxic for each other._

______________

Cassie stills has Rachel and Luke. They're enough. 

Rachel is four when it happened. Old enough to remember Cassie's human face, but too young to understand. 

On her face day of kindergarten, Cassie and Luke walk her to the school. Cassie licks Rachel's face as she cries into her fur, but she can't hold her. Luke does. Luke also walks her to her classroom. Animorph or not, the school doesn't want a wolf in the school.

Rachel's six when she brings a friend home. The friend screams when he sees Cassie and the wolf flinches. It takes an hour to calm him down and the wolf is anxious by the time he leaves. Cassie needs to go out for a run in the woods to calm down. Rachel doesn't understand why her friend was so scared. Maybe she should. Cassie worried her instincts will take her over one day and she'll hurt someone.

Rachel's seven when they go on their first family vacation since the accident. They go to the beach, Cassie hates it. But Rachel has so much fun, it makes it worth it to see her smile. At the end of the day, Lucas has to help wash the sand and salt out of her fur. She tells him next time they should go camping. 

Rachel's eight when she decides to boycott vicious werewolf movies because "her mom is a good werewolf."

Rachel's nine when they go camping. The wolf is much happier with this vacation. Cassie plays with Rachel like a pup and both the wolf and Cassie are happiest that day. The happiness ends when someone tries to shoot Cassie because they think a wild wolf is attacking a little girl. Cassie's not hit but it's just another reminder of how weird this situation is. 

Rachel's ten when she asks if Cassie can turn back because she doesn't remember what she used to look like. Lucas shows her a picture.

Rachel's eleven when joins the local soccer team and only her father ever attends games.

Rachel's twelve when Cassie's age starts to show and she starts to get arthritis.

Rachel's thirteen when she asks Cassie if she liked to wear make up when she was human. Cassie tells her she didn't, but her best friend Rachel did. That's when Rachel learns she was named after a dead girl.

Rachel's fourteen when she has heart broken by a boy for the first time. Cassie spends the night with her and Rachel hugs her and cries into her fur. Cassie licks the tears away and Rachel complains about "wolf breath."

Rachel's fifteen when Cassie starts having heart problems.

Rachel's sixteen when they bury her mother.

 


End file.
